The Trans-Pacific Partnership Patent Provisions’ Impact on the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry

On Oct. 5, 2015, Ministers of the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries—Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the U.S. and Vietnam—reached a trade deal that will regulate 40 percent of the world economy. What does it mean for American pharmaceutical companies? The TPP will make it easier for American pharmaceutical and biologic companies to sell pharmaceutical and biologic products abroad by eliminating taxes and other trade barriers on American products across the 11 other countries in the TPP.

Patent laws in the U.S. and elsewhere grant patents and other legal protections to the first company to invent a new drug. The framers of the U.S. Constitution recognized the importance of rewarding inventors to encourage research and development. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution recites: